As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the classic or traditional drumstick has an elongated, tubular shape with a substantially consistent surface area and cross-sectional thickness extending along the entire length of the drums tick. The traditional drumstick normally is made of wood and has a plastic piece at the striking end of the stick, i.e., the end of the stick that strikes that drumhead. The traditional drumstick provides a "hard" sound when it strikes a drumhead or cymbal. Moreover, the wood that comprises a substantial portion of the body of the stick tends to suffer rimshot damage that results from portions of the stick striking the metal rim that normally surrounds that drumhead.
Several variations on the traditional drumstick were developed to make the stick more durable and to provide a "softer" sound. One such variation is a stick with a durable, metal body that employs a series of wire brushes for striking the drumhead to provide a "softer" sound. It is also known to construct drumsticks from polymeric materials instead of wood to make the sticks more durable. Examples of the foregoing types of drumsticks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,341,716; 5,044,250; 5,179,237; and 4,246,826 and are commercially available under the trademarks HOT RODS, BLASSTICKS and WOODWACKS. These commercially available sticks are used mostly for a "softer" sound in accoustic, jazz, country, or soft rock situations. A problem, however, with these commercially available "soft" sounding drumsticks is that they are relatively more complicated to manufacture than the traditional stick. These softer sounding drumsticks are typically constructed from a multitude of parts. An additional problem with these sticks is that they provide too "soft" a sound for some musical situations.
Before the present invention, the options typically available to a drummer where the traditional drumstick that provided a "hard" sound and the foregoing variations that provided a "softer" sound, but which were constructed from numerous parts and thus were more complicated to manufacture than the one piece traditional stick. There was thus a need in the art for a durable drumstick that provides a "soft" sound and had the ease of construction of the traditional drumstick. There was also a need for a drumstick that could provide a sound that was "softer" than the traditional drumstick but "harder" than the soft sounding drumsticks previously known.